As I was reading my devotion one day, I stumbled across the book of Job. Now, I have never read this book before and didn’t have much of an idea about it either. Needless to say, my devotion that day hit me in the heart.
One thing I did not know was that the book of Job, the 18th book of the Bible, chronologically occurs after the flood in Genesis. The book contains forty-two chapters, so I am not going to go into deep discussion about all the chapters. You would definitely stop reading before I even started discussing chapter six. If you hadn’t read anything about Job, check it out for yourselves. He praised God even in the tough times and he was patient.
I doubt I am the only person who has ever asked why bad things happen to good people. I would be a liar if I said I wasn’t bothered when I started reading the book of Job. Job, a faithful servant to God, was tested and endured a long period of bitter suffering. As I was reading I kept asking,” Why God? Why did you allow this to happen to one of your faithful servants?” I realized that I ask those same questions in a different form sometimes… such as “why did you let this happen to me God? Why aren’t you answering my prayers?”
The book of Job inspired me to turn it into a devotion for my Christian sorority sisters at school. At the meeting, I had them write on a slip of paper and toss it into a box. All slips of papers are anonymous and I took the box home to pray over them. They had a couple different options of what to write on that piece of paper: an unspoken prayer request, an encouraging note to a fellow sister, or a “Job” moment.
I was not expecting to get some of the responses I got and they brought tears to my eyes. You never know what someone has gone through until you actually sit back and listen.
Sometimes I feel like a situation will never get any better. I would keep asking why bad things happen to good people, thinking I was considered as a good person. I would get upset and start to tell myself that the reason all the terrible things that were happening was because I was actually an awful person. It’s a deep cycle of dark thinking that can be very difficult to break. It’s a ton of self- examination and a good bit of observation of others and your surroundings.
There is a Bible verse that sits in my room and reminds me every day that the struggle is only temporary. The bad part is that sometimes my stubborn self ignores the verse on purpose.
Luke 1:37 says “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”
That verse says nothing about “For with God all will be easy,” because nothing in life ever is. When the dark cycle is swirling around you it can be easy to forget that God didn’t promise a life free of difficulties, but one of hope. He is the one we can turn to in time of need and struggle. He won’t always snap his fingers to fix the problem immediately. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and unfortunately, I was never good at long distance running. I like speedy fixes and getting things squared away as soon as possible, but that doesn’t always happen when I want it to.
Job wasn’t a perfect person, but he was a faithful servant to God. He was hit with curveballs thrown at him from life over and over again. Even when he wanted to give up, God wouldn’t let him because He had more plans for Job. We don’t have the answers for everything and sometimes letting go and trusting God is all we have. In the end, He prevails and we will be okay.
Mirror, Mirror 